


Hair Falling Into Place Like Dominoes

by purplepinkskies



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Drabble, Fluff, M/M, POV Andrew Minyard, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-04
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-15 05:34:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28558398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purplepinkskies/pseuds/purplepinkskies
Summary: Neil’s hair evolution through Andrew’s eyes. A short drabble featuring boys softer than they probably should be.
Relationships: Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard
Comments: 10
Kudos: 156
Collections: All for the Game Fics





	Hair Falling Into Place Like Dominoes

**Author's Note:**

> Hiiii! I’ve kinda wanted to write fic for a while, but university during a pandemic is a lot, so the day after my last two finals I wrote this.
> 
> Title from Gold Rush - Taylor Swift

Andrew was disappointed that it took him longer to figure out that Neil's hair was fake than it took him to see that he used coloured contacts. Andrew decided that it was the drugs’ fault, as they were hard at work obscuring signs and scattering dots before he could connect them. He should have noticed sooner, with the frayed ends, the brittle strands, and the faint smell of chemicals that lingered around him every few weeks.  
It adds to the mystery of Neil Josten, another lie from the liar. And sometimes, when his thoughts can stay together, he will picture what could possibly be hidden under the layers of dye. Sometimes he thinks he gets close - but the drugs pull away any useful thoughts and there they go - flying away and away and away. Gone before he can find what he was looking for.  
***  
The first night in Columbia, Andrew is stricken by the absolute blue of Neil's eyes. It’s unnerving, because Andrew doesn’t get caught off guard, but the tilting feeling in his gut when he sees those eyes is distinctly close to something like feeling. It’s gone before he can grasp it, and then he’s grappling with withdrawal and then he’s hauling blue eyes home before any truths are pulled because Neil would rather be knocked out than risk spilling his secrets.  
As he walks out of Easthaven, Andrew feels that feeling again, as he is stricken by Neil. First his face, bruised and bandaged and not how he left it, clearly hurt when it was Andrew who was supposed to be protecting him. Then his hair in a new shade of brown, no longer dull in the glaring overhead waiting room lights but another thing to keep him interesting. It confuses him, then he’s angry and has to look away because Kevin’s face is bruised too and that might mean two broken deals and Andrew needs out of this place. Nicky might have said something about it, but Nicky doesn’t understand that he can’t possibly process Neil right now, not when it might make him feel for the first time after coming off the drugs and not when he needs to get far away from this facility as fast as he can. Not when he needs to get rid of these clothes and get back somewhere where he can finally be in control of himself and his life.  
He gets to be the one who drives his own car, and he drives back fast. When Andrew exits the drivers side, Neil is there waiting, and Andrew notices that Neil’s eyes are blue blue blue again, and isn’t that curious, a liar revealing his lies. He doesn’t give Neil an inch of space, telling himself that he's testing his own limits and Neil’s awareness of Andrew’s boundaries.  
On the roof later, with the sun escaping below the horizon, Andrew sees the red in Neil’s hair ignite, and oh- isn’t that funny? Neil is a redhead, which Andrew thinks explains the temper, and then oh- the colour suits him so well but then Neil is talking again, twisting and twirling his words until he makes it sound like he actually kept his promise even though he is hurt and Kevin is hurt - which Andrew will have to take care of but it can wait until later. Andrew makes Neil leave because he needs time alone to figure out himself and figure out Neil and his hair and his eyes and his tattoo and Neil Neil Neil Neil.  
***  
The recovery of Neil’s hair happens so slowly that Andrew would have missed it if his memory wasn’t so good. Neil doesn’t touch it, he lets it grow and become increasingly unruly over the summer. Andrew doesn’t know how he can stand it falling into his eyes and sticking to his forehead and curling around his ears and neck. Neil has also found a violently orange bandana that clashes with his auburn hair and blue eyes and his general being, but it keeps his hair out of his eyes on the court, and Neil seems to have become attached to the thing.  
Neil’s hair becomes softer, and Andrew finds himself running his fingers through it more often, sometimes on purpose, sometimes not. Sometimes Andrew’s fingers push it away from his forehead to uncover his eyes. Sometimes he tucks it behind Neil’s ears. Sometimes his fingers are just running through because it’s soft and Neil will lean into his touch like he’s some sort of cat. Sometimes Andrew’s fingers find themselves gripping Neil’s hair because it’s Andrew who’s falling and if Neil stops kissing him like this he thinks he might finally hit the ground and all his bones will crush and won’t that teach him for letting himself feel.  
It’s not until the team comes back for summer practices that someone does something about the mop that’s grown on top of Neil's head. It only takes a couple of seconds after Allison walks into the team lounge at the stadium to make an indignant sound and beeline straight for Neil.  
“What the fuck is this?” She says as she slides the orange bandana off Neil’s head.  
“Hey!” he yelps, and makes a pathetic attempt at swatting her hand away, but she already has the bandana in her grip before he can make contact. Neil immediately needs to sweep his hair out of his eyes so he can continue to glare at Allison.  
Allison turns her glare over to Andrew, “You really let him walk around like this all summer?” She shakes the orange fabric around, “I expected better of you both” she punctuates this by jabbing the bandana at him and then at Nicky.  
“I don’t control him” Andrew replies, at the same time Nicky starts exclaiming his excuses loudly,  
“I tried! He refused to let me take him anywhere to get it fixed, and you know how stubborn he is.”  
Allison makes an unconvinced noise and looks over at Neil for an explanation. “Well,” Neil starts, “there is no way I am letting a stranger near my head with a sharp object.”  
It’s quiet for a second, where everyone remembers that Neil isn’t the soft child they treat him as. Kevin looks mildly uncomfortable, Aaron looks at his phone and pretends not to care, and the rest of the foxes react with some mixture of pity and sadness. It’s Allison who recovers first. “Well I, for one, refuse to be seen around you like this, so it is getting fixed. Saturday morning. You are not getting out of it.” She makes her demands using her rich-girl-giving-orders voice, and doesn’t wait for Neil’s affirmation before turning and moving to take her own seat on a chair in the room.  
***  
On Saturday, Neil gets up to go for a run at the same before dawn hour as he always does, waking Andrew as he moves quietly through the room. Andrew can’t fall asleep again, but it doesn’t matter much, as he has plans to spar with Renee this morning anyways. Andrew pulls himself out of bed a few minutes after he hears Neil leave the dorm and makes himself coffee.  
Neil doesn’t make it back before Renee knocks on the door to collect Andrew, and they walk down to the basement together. Andrew finds himself out of practice, and Renee is taking him down faster than he thinks she should be able to. He finds that he’s not so bothered by this fact, and knows that as he begins regularly going to the gym again he will become more of a match for Renee.  
They call it quits after Renee has him on his back for the fifth time, and they return to their dorms. Kevin is watching some Netflix documentary in the living room, and Neil isn’t there, so he assumes that Allison had already taken him. Andrew takes a shower, and when he’s done, gets dressed in a pair of sweatpants and an old Eagles T-shirt that could belong to either him or Neil. He pulls out his laptop to watch something that is slightly less boring than whatever Kevin has on and settles on his bed to wait for Neil to come back.  
Neil comes back a few hours later, and Andrew leaves the bedroom to investigate. Allison is carrying a shopping bag into their bathroom, but Andrew’s gaze is quickly caught by Neil next. He feels his chest drop and forgets how to breathe for a second before he is able to compose himself again because Neil’s hair has curls. Allison buzzed his hair short on the sides, but left some of the length on top, short enough that it doesn’t weigh down the curls anymore and Andrew wants to touch. He wants to run his hands over the short sides and tangle his fingers in the curls and never let go of him again. Andrew follows Neil’s curls down over his forehead and catches Neil’s eyes, and knows Neil noticed and he hates how it makes him feel to know that Neil knows him.  
The moment is gone when Allison sticks her head out of the bathroom to call Neil in. Neil follows, but not before giving Andrew that look, and Andrew needs Neil with him because he’s falling again and Neil is the only one who can catch him.  
Allison is unloading her shopping bag full of products and carefully explaining what Neil needs to do with each one and the order to use them in, but Andrew might as well not be there because all he can focus on is Neil’s hair the entire time. Allison gives him a smug look as she moves around him to leave the bathroom, but Andrew couldn’t care less, because his hands are reaching for Neil as soon as he has the door closed.  
***  
Neil is wearing a bandana again. Not the same bandana, Andrew notices, because this one is not only a radioactive orange colour, but it has small foxes printed on it. It still clashes with everything about Neil, but it does an adept job at holding Neil’s curls off his forehead. Andrew hates Neil. Andrew really, really hates Neil and doesn’t know if he can forgive him for bringing the bandana back. But as Andrew watches Neil take off his helmet, letting his curls free from their entrapment, he thinks he might be able to ignore the bandana. Neil catches him staring a second later, and upturns his lips the smallest amount, giving the smile Andrew knows is only for him, and yeah, he thinks, maybe the bandana can stay for now.

**Author's Note:**

> IDK let me know if you liked it? Thanks for reading!


End file.
